


The Dream

by SPowell



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Jealous!Merlin, M/M, Misunderstanding, Modern AU, One Shot, married, vulnerable!Merlin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-08 13:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/761785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SPowell/pseuds/SPowell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the kink_me prompt where Merlin is angry over a dream he's had where Arthur cheated.</p><p>Disclaimer: I make no profit from this endeavor. The characters belong to BBC and Shine, along with legend.</p><p>Re-worked September 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dream

“Merlin, is something wrong?” Arthur asks, folding up the newspaper and giving his husband his full attention. They’ve been married a few months and known one another over a year, but Arthur thinks even a total stranger would be able to read the signals Merlin is giving out.  
  
“No.” Merlin slaps an egg on a plate before setting it in front of Arthur with a rattle. Arthur pokes the fat yolk with his fork and thin, yellow liquid runs out, covering the surface.  
  
“Did you forget that I prefer my eggs cooked?” 

Merlin glares at him.  
  
“Why don’t you just ask  _Gwaine_  to make you some eggs if mine are so awful?” Merlin's voice is such a perfect imitation of a disgruntled housewife that Arthur would laugh if only he knew what the hell Merlin is talking about.  
  
“Gwaine?” Arthur raises a brow. “Can Gwaine even cook? Is he here?” Arthur looks around.  
  
“Oh, I bet you just wish he was here!” Merlin slams the pan into the sink and stomps off.  
  
With a sigh, Arthur gets up from the table, peels a banana, and follows Merlin.  
  
He finds him in the bedroom, spread out on the bed with his face buried in a book. Arthur crawls up onto the bed next to him and tries to see what he’s reading, but Merlin remains rigid. Arthur finally butts his head up under Merlin’s arm until he’s blocking the page.  
  
“What are you doing, you tosser? I’m trying to read!” Merlin throws the book down.   
  
Arthur pops the rest of the banana in his mouth.  
  
“What was the last sentence you read?”  
  
Merlin blusters a bit. “I don’t know! You distracted me.”  
  
“Tell me why you’re so angry with me.” Arthur settles in more comfortably in the crook of Merlin’s arm. “You were fine when we went to bed last night, and I’m sure I couldn’t have done anything to annoy you in my sleep.”

"Don't be so sure," Merlin says. "You do snore, you know. And you take all the covers."

"That's why you're mad?"  
  
Merlin heaves a huge sigh and rubs his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I dreamed last night that you cheated on me. With Gwaine.”  
  
Arthur tilts his head. “You do realize that I have absolutely no control over what you dream, right?”  
  
“Yes, but…it was so real!” Merlin squeezes his eyes shut.  
  
“Still not my fault.”  
  
“You were lying to me, Arthur! Being so wonderful here with me but sneaking about on the side and…and…” Merlin falters.  
  
“And?” Arthur prompts.  
  
“And letting him fuck you.” Merlin swallows thickly.  
  
“Quite the unlikely scenario,” Arthur says. “Don’t you think?”  
  
Merlin doesn’t answer.

“Merlin?”  
  
Arthur sits up. “Merlin, look at me.” He reaches out, and taking Merlin’s face in his hand, Arthur forces Merlin to meet his gaze. Merlin’s eyes are full of uncertainty.

“Why you would imagine I would want Gwaine when I have you is beyond me.”  
  
Merlin’s lips quirk. “Well, there is all the hair.”  
  
Arthur frowns. “Have I given you any reason to think I’m not happy?”  
  
Merlin slowly shakes his head. Arthur lies down on his side and urges Merlin to do the same so that they face one another. He kisses the tip of Merlin’s nose. “Tell me what upset you so much about the dream.”  
  
“Isn’t it obvious?” Merlin rolls his eyes.  
  
“No, not really. I once dreamed I caught you sucking Lance off in the shower, but after I woke up, I was able to shrug it off.”  
  
“Lance? Really?” Merlin wrinkles his nose. “I don’t see it.”  
  
“Well, I hope not! Particularly since he’s married to Gwen.” Arthur chuckles. “She’d rip your heart out and fry it up for dinner.”  
  
“Wonder why you dreamed that,” Merlin muses. “There are usually reasons for these things.”  
  
Arthur rubs his bare feet against Merlin’s. “I think it was because you were spending so much time talking to him about your masters thesis. I guess I was a bit jealous.”  
  
“Oh. So that translated into us having sex, then,” Merlin says. "Naturally."  
  
“I suppose,” Arthur ignores the sarcasm. He thinks a moment. “But Gwaine and I haven’t been spending any time together lately, so why did you dream I was with him?”  
  
Merlin reaches out and fiddles with the sleeve of Arthur’s T-shirt, twisting it about his finger. “It probably has something to do with Gwaine being so aggressively male.”  
  
Arthur frowns, and Merlin lets out a sigh. “He was fucking you, Arthur. Fucking you. As in giving it to you good. Up the arse. You get it now?”  
  
It takes a minute before realization dawns on Arthur’s face. “Are you saying that if you were more of a man I’d let you fuck me?”   
  
Merlin turns onto his back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not saying anything of the sort. I’m just telling you about my dream.”  
  
“But you said…”  
  
“Arthur. Just shut up, will you?” Merlin’s voice rises, and Arthur scoots closer to him, kissing a sharp cheekbone.  
  
“Merlin, I love you.”  
  
“I know that, Arthur.”  
  
“I’m not going to let Gwaine, or any other man, fuck me.”  
  
Merlin turns his head away.  
  
“No man except for you,” Arthur clarifies.  
  
Merlin stills, the only movement the rapid rise and fall of his chest.  
  
“If that’s what you want.” Arthur waits. “Is that what you want, Merlin? Because you only had to say so.”  
  
Merlin’s head whips around. “What do you mean by that?”  
  
“I mean…what do you mean, what do I mean?” Arthur suddenly finds himself on the defensive. “You’ve never indicated you wanted to do anything but bottom! How was I supposed to know? I mean, suddenly you say you’re dreaming that Gwaine’s fucking me and that makes you angry, like I let him and not you---“  
  
“It was one dream, Arthur, not plural,” Merlin retorts. “I haven’t been dreaming it. I dreamed it once. Last night. Once.”  
  
“Okay, okay. Once. But did you dream it because it’s something you want to do?” Arthur presses.  
  
“I don’t know…maybe. Yes. Yes!” Merlin curls a hand in Arthur's hair. “Yes, I want to fuck you, Arthur!”  
  
“Okay, then,” Arthur says. “Do it.”  
  
“But…but I thought…” Merlin stammers.  
  
“You thought what?”  
  
“That you didn’t like to bottom,” Merlin finishes weakly.  
  
“Why did you think that?” Arthur frowns.  
  
“Because you always top, you twat! Why do you think?”  
  
“Well, you always wiggle your arse and want me to fill it, so I thought you liked to bottom,” Arthur says. “I’m not the only numpty in this room!”  
  
“I do like it. I  _love_  it, but I think maybe I’d like to top now and then.”  
  
“And I’d like to bottom now and then,” Arthur says.  
  
“Okay, then.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
Merlin grins, and Arthur grins back at him.  
  
“Can we get to the fucking now?” Arthur wraps an arm around Merlin's waist.  
  
“I think we should,” Merlin moves in to kiss Arthur, covering him with his body.  
  
So they do.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are hugs to the author.


End file.
